Do you know what Hitler and his henchman did? 11 million people died ghastly deaths. (And — as an aside — do you know about the spike of anti-Semitism in France?)

President Obama is Hitler? That is so offensive to anyone who has a family member who perished in that genocide in Europe. Most of my family came here after the first World War. Those who remained in Europe, perished. A lucky few went to Cuba in 1938, when our nation closed its doors to refugees.

But what this nation forgets is that US soldiers — my Uncle Willy among them — were sent to concentration camps after being captured in the Battle of the Bulge. My uncle survived, but, yes, Americans died in the concentration camps. And America forgot these soldiers.

And what happened in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s was not a holocaust. That is a ritual cleansing through fire. What happened in Europe was a shoah, a CATASTROPHE. Not just for Jews but for 5 — yes, 5 — million more people.

So, call it the Shoah. 11 million humans were burned or starved. Others survived, only to be scarred.

Shoah. Shoah. Shoah. SHOAH. Call it by its real name.

How dare you trivialize what Hitler did to Europe and its citizens. To families. To children.

And how dare you, by your comments, trivialize what happened in France this past week. The terrorized citizens of that great City of Lights. And, yes, especially the Jews among them.

President Obama should have sent someone to Paris. Bad decision. That is all. It isn’t mass murder.

The president should have been criticized for missing an opportunity to stand in unity with world leaders. The criticism should match the the offense.

What you said undercuts the validity of your criticisms of the president. It makes you sound rabid and crazy. There are very valid criticisms of President Obama (and I am a proud supporter of him).

But you have lost your credibility. Yes. Because you compared the president to Hitler. Because you sound crazy. (Since our government started an unnecessary war in Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands, would you call our former president or vice president Hitler?)

Try being the sane, loyal and temperate opposition to President Obama’s actions and even some of the president’s supporters might agree with you from time to time.

Why am I so flipped out? Because what you said hit a nerve. Maybe when all Jews who knew someone in a concentration camp are no more, then it won’t be as visceral. I imagine that every group that has survived a slaughter feels this way. We aren’t any different. Our scars are the same.

In the meantime, please brush up on your history.

~ a proud citizen of the United States of America disappointed with the vicious rhetoric

Mom and Dad always taught us that if you lose, you lose with dignity. You don’t take your marbles and stomp off.

Except I never played marbles and I had no idea what they were talking about. Just like my son doesn’t understand the phrase, “you sound like a broken record.”

But, eventually, I got the point. If you lose fair and square, then you congratulate the winner and move on. You don’t try to pretend the game never happened or that the winner cheated or that you were robbed of the trophy.

Unless, of course, you are part of the Tea Party. Then you think that G-d is your co-pilot and that Barack Obama is not a legitimate president because, well, how could we elect a black man and no black man was ever born in the State of Hawaii. (SIDEBAR: Ted Cruz, you were born in Canada and had dual citizenship until a week ago.)

Let’s be fair. We have had presidents who ascended to the highest office in the land under a cloud. The “elections” ofJohn F. Kennedy and George W. Bush come to mind.

But the Tea Party did not mind George W. Bush being president. Hmmmmmmm.

Maybe because they “won”? Hey, I remained an ordinary, law abiding citizen and patriot even through the terrible years of Bush/Cheney. And I did not think they were duly elected, but the Supreme Court spoke.

I didn’t take my marbles and stomp off. But, now the Tea Party is mad because Barack Obama is president, and a legitimate president.

But the government shut down and the debt ceiling should not be about one man and his health care reform and his birth certificate.

These issues are about the people you all pretend to care about.

This is America and the majority spoke. Be patriots. Show the world that this is your country, come what may. Come on, I dare you, Tea Party members of Congress.

Put country first.

Hey, I am as liberal as they come and I say to you, “Less government? ok. No government? Anarchy.”

And anarchy is treason.

And so are breaching the public trust and the full faith and credit of the United States of America.

And then you will see citizens like me — middle-aged, economically secure (or so we thought) taxpayers — take to the streets and scream for your heads because you let our nation default.

So, before you smugly take your marbles and stomp off, remember, if you let our nation default —-

then you are no better than Benedict Arnold, betraying your country and fellow citizens and playing roulette with the total collapse of the republic.

“Sequester” will be a reality in less than two weeks. Economic and political chaos visible on the horizon. The Congress and the White House are in their respective corners, blaming each other.

McCain is yelling “cover-up!” on Benghazi, while under Bush’s watch, the attacks on our embassies were incalculable and the lives lost a moral travesty.

Syria is being armed by the Russians, even though Britain made a statement that Russia had stopped, further isolating Prime Minister Cameron from the EU and the world.

The President golfs with Tiger Woods. It is ok now, say those who only speak on the condition of anonymity, because he isn’t running for re-election. I guess Michelle Obama hasn’t taught Barry enough about the rage of women.

The White House rankles partisan divides by leaking an immigration plan. Marco Rubio flamed out in his response to the State of the Union. So much for Time’s savior of the GOP.

The Keystone Pipeline and fracking are gaining momentum even as the dire environmental implications are clear.

Ashley Judd is taking on Mitch McConnell for his Senate seat. He looks ever more like a chicken that Frank Perdue wouldn’t serve.

For anyone keeping score on this contest between the government and nation, the nation is losing. Badly.

Tax Day is coming up and for the first time in my life (read, even under George W. Bush), I am not proud to pay my taxes. Why? A bunch of clowns run our government.

I watched President Obama’s speech and I cried. These words he said, “Stonewall” and “gay brothers and sisters,” rang in my ears, traveled to my heart and emerged through the tears streaming from my eyes.

From the podium of the most powerful came words that said my family exists and I exist. Yes, it is just a bully pulpit and not the law of the land. But that vision, that inclusion, can never be unsaid.

Later, SOS and I watched the speech togather. Because I needed him to hear, as millions of others heard, that we are equal.

Because he needs to know that for most of the population over 30 years old, the president’s remarks were as significant as Dr. King’s words were to his generation. And he needs to understand that for his mothers, this was, unexpectedly, a day of validation, hope and pride. Because we have lived through so much and we have seen so much and had our hopes of equality dashed so many, many times.

And we need SOS to understand where we’ve been so he can guide us and forgive us our hardened exteriors and paranoia. And maybe, just maybe, he will walk with us into a new era of equality and then, only then, will his mothers’ hell slowly go by….

Whatever happens next: God bless you, Mr. President. Even if only for a day, today, TODAY, you made our dreams seem within reach. God bless America.

Yesterday, POB, SOS and I joined a group of well-heeled, mulit-cultural (I might add) Upper West Siders on a bus to West Philadelphia to get out the vote for Obama.

We arrived at an Obama field office.

We were given clipboards with lists of voters who hadn’t voted in 2010. We had to knock on doors to make sure that these citizens knew that their vote was important, what they needed for proper ID (and that the Pennsylvania voter suppression law was struck down) and the location of their polling booths.

POB and I were given names on opposite side of the street. SOS tagged along with one of us. People were so welcoming and glad we were out in the cold making sure that they knew where to vote. Many people weren’t at home; the people who answered the doors said they were at work.

West Philly is not exactly the cushy part of town. It was working class until the Great Recession. Now, parts are boarded up.

High unemployment. Crime skyrocketing. See the sign in the pizza place below.

When I was in there buying a pizza, someone came in with a hoodie, and the cashier said, “take off your hoodie, or I am calling the police.” The management is serious about the hoodie thing.

It seemed (to my white, upper middle class, eye) that many needed a reminder that their vote counts. Certainly, with all the attempts at voter suppression, a person could give up hope. But, more than anyone else, their lives are literally on the line — the poverty line — depending on the outcome on Tuesday.

Some places were scary and creepy. SOS was a little unnerved by these places. Especially, a young boy who was outside with no one minding him. (Yes, sweetie, I thought, please think about this when you re-enter your rarefied world.)

Among the three of us, we knocked on 120 doors and got some very enthusiastic responses (once they realized we weren’t canvassing for Romney).

POB, SOS and I talked about our adventure over dinner tonight. I tried to make the point to SOS that his great-grandparents were the working (or sometimes not working) poor who lived and raised their children in tenements and then, later on, in nicer places. But his grandparents had a great public school system and there were jobs for them when they graduated. And that I am one generation removed from this neighborhood. And Grandpa got mixed up with a gang before his brothers intervened (and then beat the crap out of him).

I don’t know if he understood the importance of what we did, as citizens of this country, and as a way to pay forward our family’s good fortune and opportunity by re-electing President Obama. I believe this. And I always will.

Why does it matter who is president? Aren’t they so close on so many issues? Can either really make the changes he says he wants to?

Yes, it matters. It matters “big time” (to quote Dubya).

It matters that we push back against the forces that just said no for four years, watching this country flail around in order to make a transformative president look weak and ineffectual.

It matters that we don’t elect a man who takes the position du jour, as long as it pleases most of the people for some of the time during the 24 hour news cycle.

It matters that we don’t elect a party beholden to extremists in that party who would claw back women’s rights, leave the young and the old at the hands of “free enterprise” as it rolls back the safety net — the very beacon of light and hope that is the definition of American exceptionalism.

We applaud personal heroism but we don’t leave a man behind enemy lines. We take care of the wounded, the poor, the terrorized, and those who have fallen on hard times. Years ago, when we were a young country, we knew that one year’s good crop could be next year’s dust bowl, so when we were helping the poor and the stranger, we were helping ourselves because there but for the grace of G-d . . . .

Do the Bible Belters even read the Bible anymore? At my Bat Mitzvah, I read from Leviticus, “when you reap your harvest, you shall not reap the corners of the field. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger.”

Where is that social compact now? I believe in those words. That is why it matters.

I stand on the shoulders of our Greatest Generation, who relied on the GI Bill to become professionals. And they stood on the shoulders of those who made the voyage to America to work hard and make sure their children had a good life.

I am the product of the greatest social compact in modern times. The other part of the social compact is that I pay taxes. Lots of them. I would pay for the stimulus money and bail-outs and I would pay for ill-conceived wars, were they not put on a credit card.

Why would I pay for these things? I do not want to pay for the follies of the rich or oil-greedy. But I am an American and we pay our debts.

Because we are in this together.

So, I will pay for the Iraq War, the bail-out and the stimulus and you pay for education and renewable energy. You know that I will foot the bigger bill. But this is America.

And we are in this together.

And so it matters who is president next year. The very soul of our nation — our identity — depends on it.

For many months, I have been tied up in knots over the contenders for GOP nomination. I am terrified that on the third Tuesday in January, 2013, someone will utter any of the following: “President Romney”, “President Gingrich”, “President Paul” or “President Santorum”.

I watch the GOP debates, with all of the venal, xenophobic, hypocritical, self-serving garbage that the candidates spew.

Any of these people would destroy our nation. Setting aside Ron Paul and Rick Santorum (who are not winning the primaries), Gingrich is just evil, mercurial and evil (it bears repeating) and Romney is clueless and changes position faster than some in our nation change underwear.

President Obama who was elected to fix everything in less time than it took to break it all. And, he wasn’t supposed to break a sweat or a promise or make a mistake. We were exuberant, irrational and naive about the true state of our nation. No one — no Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Tea Party-ist, whatever — would face any easier re-election bid.

Let’s just accept that. If McCain had won, he would be called the GOP’s version of Jimmy Carter.

And let’s be clear — Obama’s campaign fed on the hopes and aspirations that we were electing a messianic politician. He rode high and won on outlandish expectations that his campaign encouraged. Once elected, he had to tamp down the expectations. Because he found out just what he inherited and it wasn’t pretty.

But the GOP nominee can be the next president of the United States. We cannot ignore that scary possibility. (To wit: GWB won 5-4 in the Supreme Court.) Too many people are comfortable that Obama can beat either Romney or Gingrich, but the economy is fragile and people are deeply divided over President Obama (some for political reasons; others, for reasons that are, let’s say, less than Christian). So, nothing is a sure thing.

Why am I scared? We have never been more divided as a nation. And President Obama has incited the angry passions in the left wing of the Democrats and all of the Republicans — Democratic left, because he wasn’t nearly as “progressive” as they had expected and the Republicans, because he wasn’t nearly the effete liberal, scared-y cat they were hoping to skewer.

Now that the GOP is divided and frantically scrambling to blow back against a Gingrich nomination or presidency, I smile and relax.

If I set aside what the mud-slinging says about us and our society, I can talk about the debates in the same conversation as others talk about the Real Housewives of Los Angeles. And no one knows I am talking about the political debates and our (G-d forbid) future president of our country.

You have had more thrown at you than any other president in a long, long time. And there is no denying that your job is made more difficult by unspoken racism.

But, Mr. President, you failed to lead by framing the issues before us. You let others steal the story line. Maybe your deference comes from your background as a Constitutional scholar. Don’t ever take broad executive power off the table again — if the 14th Amendment gives you power, threaten to use it. Be the man who hunted down Osama Bin Laden.

Don’t look at polls. Look at us.

Inspire us again. Remember how you did it? You told us your vision and you told us things we didn’t want to hear. You can tell us that it wasn’t as easy to clean up Washington and that you had to make decisions based on information that President Obama had that Candidate Obama didn’t have. We can understand if you are angry about the Congress.

But you need to say it. You need to give your vision, your goals as modified by the political realities.

I have this terrible feeling that I, along with everyone else in this country, am being sacrificed at the altar of hubris and zealotry.

“Take no prisoners” is a way of waging war. It is not a way of governing. True believers and purists on both sides of the aisles are important counterbalances, but they cannot dictate the future of our nation. Even Grover Norquist said letting the Bush tax cuts (which affect me) expire and closing tax loopholes are not “new” taxes (phew, because if repealing subsidies for corporate jets is so problematic in these times of George W. Bush deficits, then let’s all join hands and drown ourselves). Shouldn’t the true believers be swayed? I guess it is a new, virulent strain of true believer. One that speaks to God directly. It must be a local call because the long distance charges alone could bankrupt a person.

For those who invoke G-d and destiny in the argument surrounding the raising of the debt ceiling, I send this quote:

“Do Justice, Love Mercy and Walk Humbly with your God.”

This is the answer to two questions posed in Micah, Chap. 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you? What are you supposed to do to live faithfully with your God?”

Why am quoting scripture? Because I am that desperate for the extremists to take pity on us and our nation and make some hard and dare I say, PRACTICAL, decisions.

I understand taking a hard line in the abortion debate, in the capital punishment debate and in the war debates. These are about potential life, actual life and the taking of life. But, in the money debate? I think you can tell what God thinks about money by who has the most. So, let’s not bring God into this. Let’s be honest. It is about political gain and power. And that is about as un-God-like as you can get.

You know the world is tilted in the wrong direction when I am trying to “protect” God’s good name from God’s self-proclaimed followers. As far as I can tell, they are frauds.

This is now our national discourse? WTF? How about if you don’t like what you hear, instead of tearing it down, Build It, Tough CHick.

Ugh, I have stooped to her level. Soon I’ll be sending my son to appear on Dancing With Famous People’s Children who should be home taking care of their love children.

But the person who out-Sarahs Sarah is Michele Bachmann. Our founding fathers fought to end slavery? Ever hear of the 3/5th Compromise in the Constitution that effectively legitimized slavery and kicked the issue down the road for a century?

Everyone has a right to an opinion. And I have a right to determine that someone’s opinion is stupid, ill-informed and baseless. And I have the right to believe that a scholar’s view has more weight than someone’s who has not studied the topic and relies on talking heads (on any network) for opinions.